1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a defrost-water vaporizer of a refrigerator for vaporizing defrost water from an evaporator provided in the storage space of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Refrigerators generally have a machine compartment provided in the outer bottom portion of a heat-insulated cabinet in which the storage space is defined. The machine compartment is provided, at the rear portion of the interior, with a compressor supplying refrigerant to an evaporator provided in the storage space and a vaporizing pan support. A conduit is extended at the underside of the vaporizing pan support so that high temperature refrigerant is circulated from the compressor therethrough. A vaporizing pan is mounted on the vaporizing pan support at the front portion of the interior of the machine compartment. Defrost water is introduced from the evaporator to the vaporizing pan and vaporized by utilizing heat from the high temperature refrigerant.
However, in the above-described construction, the defrost water is vaporized only from the surface thereof, which entails the problem of low vaporizing efficiency. Conventionally, the surface area of the defrost water received by the vaporizing pan has been increased to compensate for the low vaporizing efficiency and therefore, a wide, large vaporizing pan has been required. Moreover, space is required so that air flows around the vaporizing pan. Consequently, the machine compartment has been required to have a large interior space, which has decreased the inner volume of the cabinet and lowered the volume efficiency of the cabinet.